In my view, medical research gets a lot right. We have good evidence that, for instance:
- ultra-processed foods contribute to health markers that are linked to a variety of serious illnesses (like cardiovascular disease, some cancers, and type 2 diabetes)
- physical activity is one of the best things we can do for our health, longevity and well-being, across the lifespan
- developing and maintaining social connections of all sorts helps us maintain wellness and address issues in our own mental and physical health
- sleep is a magical elixir that rejuvenates us and prepares us for the daily lives we want to lead (okay, the study didn’t use the words “magical elixir”, but they should have)
Here’s what Unsplash thinks healthy living looks like:
We also know that some health claims are absolute nonsense, like:
- sleeping with a bar of lavender soap in your bed will NOT help treat or cure restless leg syndrome ( Dr Mehmet Oz said this)
- (fill in the blank) vitamin supplement NOT will cure (Alzheimer’s, cancer, Parkinson, COVID, etc.) medical condition (Oz promoted a bunch of these, too)
- Using coffee as anything other than a delightful morning beverage is a BAD IDEA (the Cleveland clinic explains why, if you must know)
- Virtually all advertised weight-loss products are BOGUS (trust me on this)
Let us now return to that magical elixir, sleep. Sleep feels good, does good, is good for us. Check, check, check. But what about its sweet cousin, the nap? Surely that delicious sleep snack must be a positive contributor to our lives, right?
I have to say that a somewhat recent scientific study came out, saying that daytime napping is associated with adverse health outcomes. In particular, it said:
Longer naps, greater intra-individual variability in daytime nap, and higher percentages of naps around noon and in the early afternoon are associated with greater mortality risks.
What?! Nonononononononononono!
Well, Prevention magazine thinks these scientists may be on to something. In this article, it asks the following scary questions:
Whoa. But don’t worry, Imma answer all these, one by one.
First, do some nap patterns increase our risk of death? No, not really.
The study looked mainly at the timing and variability of naps taken by older adults in the UK. It found oh-so-small increased risk for those who took naps at different times of day, for those who took longer naps, and for those who varied the length of their naps (which averaged 24 minutes daily).
BUT (and it’s a big but)…These results varied by gender (men seem more affected than women), by what time people arose in the morning, what time of day they tended to take their naps, how much they slept in general, and how much physical activity they got during the day. See this study for more details. And they failed to show any clinical association, just a small statistical one.
So napping isn’t really associated with death. Okay, one down.
Second: why would napping be associated with death? It’s not, not really.
Some sleep patterns reveal underlying problems rather than cause them; sleep apnea and chronic insomnia, for instance, tend to be symptoms of a variety of health conditions that carry their own mortality risk factors. But we already knew this. One of the study authors conceded this:
“The napping and mortality relationship is complex and may be influenced by adverse or protective lifestyle factors (e.g., nutrition, physical activity, substance use), nighttime sleep patterns, and underlying sleep disorders, medical comorbidities, age, as well as sex and gender-related factors.”
HAH! Told you. Second one done away with.
We are now in the napping-is-not-deadly-blog-post homestretch. Prevention asked, timidly, how can the napping-death connection be broken? Easy. See below.
Just get some exercise. Any kind will do. Walking, jogging, shuffleboard, bike riding (outdoors or in), swimming, dancing, playing with friends and family, yoga, strength training, etc. Why does this help keep napping from killing us? Because the adverse napping pattern (not napping itself) is often a symptom of known risk factors (like drinking or unprescribed drug use) and known medical conditions.
So, once more with feeling: it’s not the napping, folks. I mean, if you want to optimize your napping patterns, feel free– there are lots of articles (like this, this, and this) offering tips, which may or may not be true.
I hope you enjoyed this post. Now you must excuse me– it’s time for my nap…
Shhhh… Thanks Mittra Ronjoy for Unsplash.
